It’s almost the end of June and the Brewers are tied for first with the Cubs, like last year when they played meaningful baseball until the second to last day of the season. Wait a second. I don’t like that word meaningful. It’s as if a non-playoff related game doesn’t matter. Tell that to players who hit 4 homers in a game, strike out 20 batters, or simply get a chance to play.
Anyway, I figure if we get the death talk out of the way, the Brewers will stay alive. That’s a horrible pun or not even a pun, it’s downright disco stupid, but my baseball fever can be just that simple minded at times. Stay alive says my poster. I’ll be seating behind the Brewers dugout or not behind the dugout, but on that side, down in the corner, in right field.
So, onto death, some as predictable as old age and a heart attack; others not so, like being drunk and ornery, getting kicked off a train and then falling into a river and drowning or whichever Ed Delahanty legend you prefer.
All deaths are delved into great detail on the website The Deadball Era a place maybe overlooked by internet surfers because there is another far more familiar dead ball era, the one that came BBR (Before Babe Ruth.) Some say that era never existed but most people do.
But that’s not the point of this post, death is and more specifically, suicides. I don’t know how many there have been. (The Deadball Era lists them all. Feel free to count yourself) But lift my beer stein lid open and the first name that pops out is Doug Ault. Maybe it’s because I live in Canada and for now, the Blue Jays are the only major league team here? Ault hit the first two home runs in Blue Jays history, both on a snowy, opening day in April of 1977 in Toronto. The Blue Jays won the game and Pete Vukovich earned the save, future Brewer Vuke. But Ault. His career didn’t last long, four years, and he only hit 17 home runs, amazing that two of them came on that one day. He died of a self inflicted gun shot wound at the age of 54.
Danny Thomas. He was called the sundown kid because after joining the World Wide Church of God, he refused to pitch from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. He was charged with rape and hung himself in prison.
There’s no transcript revealing either one of their last breath thoughts.
Tony Horton played seven years in the majors, three and a half with Boston, three and a half with Cleveland. He could have played a lot longer had it not been for an emotional disorder. He was apparently booed heavily and as a partial result, tried to commit suicide. That was in Cleveland. Thankfully, he failed in his attempt. Apparently his psychiatrist encouraged him to cut ties with baseball. There’s not much more info about him.
According to his SABR Bio, he became a bit of a recluse.
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